2, 4, 6, 8!

After surviving the initial round of COVID, district leaders and I collaborated on the creation of a remote learning guide for all grade levels for the 2020-21 school year.

The guide went through several iterations, starting with an initial draft based on a blend of my district's experiences/goals and experiences at my fellow coaches' districts. We wanted to take what worked rather than re-invent the wheel by implementing practices that failed.

This guide delineates the role that technology - our LMS, devices and activities for students - plays both in the classroom and during remote learning situations.

I also worked extensively with our Elementary Curriculum Director on multi-grade band and district-wide tech initiatives. This included tools such as BrainPop (Jr.), Clever, EdPuzzle, and MobyMax, as well as roster/teacher page setup, teacher training, and on-going support.

Teachers know little about EMIS and EMIS coordinators know little about Schoology. How can you bridge the gap? Build relationships and collaborate!

Our collaboration began when high school teachers pointed out that they could not link their Intervention sections with the Gen-Ed section of the same course. After meeting with our EMIS secretary, I learned that two different course codes are used, one for Algebra 1 and one for Algebra 1IS, even though each class (section) was a mix of gen-ed and intervention students.

The question: what happens if we change the course code of the IS sections so they match the GE sections? It worked!

How do we indicate IS sections for when new students enroll and guidance wants to keep sections more even? Designate a high number for the section codes (91 or 51, for example - the first number indicates IS section, the second number is which period of the school day).

Tech Tickets

"I need...," "[This] is not working...," "How do I...?" Sometimes teachers ask the first "techy" person they find. How can we help them find the right person?

Our district tech department has a help desk ticket system. We have encouraged teachers to send at ticket to tech and then copy me on it. If one of us receives an email that really should involve the other, we reply to the teacher and cc: each other so we're all looped in.

Transition to 2021-22

With new construction come new tech opportunities. One new opportunity is the fact that we are adding enough devices in grades 6 on down so that all buildings will be 1:1 on-campus. Principals, teachers and I have already fleshed out the topics for back-to-school PD, as well as confirmed most of the teacher presenters: breakout sessions with choice are a great way to start the year!

Another new opportunity is that PK-3 teachers will have Viewsonic Viewboards in their classrooms. To be proactive, our PK-3 principals requested PD in the spring and we collaborated with our tech department to have a couple of Viewboards in each building so teachers could actually use them in their classes.